Phantom of the High School
by BPhantom
Summary: AU. Christine, high school student, just moved into a new house and new school. At the beginning of the school year, the mysterious Erik decides he likes her, but Raoul has other plans. ErikxChristinexRaoul. ErikRaoul Rivalry. First Phanfic be nice!
1. MORNING

This is what happens when I look at my friends' fan-drawings of Phantom of the Opera and hear snippets of conversations about school. All fear the crazy inspirations.

PAIRINGS: uhm…. . ; every one? I'm going to be true to the characters here, and what happens, happens. That's usually the way it goes. Except this time, I don't have a guide on who I want to end up with who. So it's a….SURPRISE!!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: **THIS IS AN AU FANFICTION.** That means that the characters are **NOT** the same as in the movie/books/play/whateverelsethereis. I modified characters (And somewhat their history) to fit in here. So, DON'T GET ANGRY if it's not perfect. The personalities should be pretty much the same, though. (Yay!)

Right. To work.

"Phantom of the High School"

Scene 1: MORNING

_Ah, school. The classes, the people, the homework, the stress. Yes, there's nothing quite like school. Nowhere else does one see such a diverse and similar group under one roof for such masochistic reasons. What happens in High School…may very well scar you for life. Which is why so many are so stressed to make it such a positive situation._

_Like me._

Christine looked up from her new notebook to the clock in front of her. She clicked her pink pen shut and put the small book away in her backpack before getting up and taking her dishes to the sink. Another school year had begun, and as usual, she expected to be on time. At least for the first day. Granted, she had been in a bit of a rush eating breakfast and brushing her teeth, yet somehow there was always time to write a short anecdote in her notebook before she took off to catch the bus.

Her Uncle had left earlier, as always, giving her a kiss on the cheek after she swallowed a spoonful of yogurt. Christine was neat and self-sufficient, cleaning up her dishes always after every meal. Life with her uncle wasn't terribly exciting, but it wasn't torture, or anything. Christine just… wasn't very passionate about her life. All of her childhood dreams of 'singing like one of the angels in Heaven' ended with her father's life. It was then that Christine realized the harshness of reality and really began to question whether any of the contributions she could give to the world would really be worth it.

Her Uncle worked for a music company, selling instruments, and had moved over the summer to open up a new store for them. He was getting a raise, but Christine honestly hated moving away from everything she knew: she was leaving behind all the friends that had been there for her all those years that she was coping with her father's death. What would there be for her here except loneliness?

When Christine looked at the clock again, she saw it was time to leave, so she quickly ran a brush through her hair one last time and slipped on her shoes and picked up her book bag as she went out the door. Right before she closed it, however, Christine peeked her head back inside. "I'm off to school…Father." There on the mantelpiece sat a picture of her father with his violin, smiling, six months before his death. It was a beautiful picture, and Christine liked to think that when she spoke to it like that, that her father was listening from Heaven.

Christine locked the door behind her and darted for the bus stop. This was going to be a long day.

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"You're going to be late again!"

"I KNOW, Mom! Just a minute! Lemme get this hair taken care of!" Every morning, it was a fight against bed head. Raoul didn't know why his hair loved to be messy on the most important days; it was so frustrating! With a snarl, he sprayed his hair again, praying it would stay where he combed it. Luckily, the super-hold spray worked. Raoul rolled his brown eyes and left the bathroom, storming down the stairs loudly.

"RAOUL!" His mother shouted. "How many times have I told you, DON'T STORM DOWN THE STEPS! You'll knock off the family portrait!" It seemed like Raoul was always running late, and he'd just storm down the stairs to make up for it. What he never realized, though, was that when he did this that the family portrait that hung on the wall below the stairs rattled precariously. Honestly, school mornings were a headache for Mrs. Chagny. First, she had to get Marie and Philippe out the door to go to elementary school, then came Raoul and his tardiness for high school, and if Georgine wasn't awake and screaming at the commotion these two events caused, it was a miracle. Surely, Mrs. Chagny wished for summer vacation much more than her children.

Raoul rushed into the kitchen and grabbed his bookbag, but was careful not to mess up his hair. It had taken so long to put into order, after all.

"Don't forget your breakfast and lunch money!" His mother told him, shoving the three dollars into his pocket and holding out a couple of granola bars.

"Okaymomthanks." Raoul said, picking up his breakfast, his eyes staring at his watch.

"And have a great first day." She said, sneaking in a kiss on the head before pushing him out the door.

"And make sure to flirt with lots of pretty girls!" Georgine called from the couch, watching cartoons until it was time for her to leave.

Raoul blushed lightly and told her to shut up before eventually succumbing to his mother's arms and stumbling out the door. "Bye guys!" He called, waving before he took off down the street, unwrapping the first granola bar and stuffing it into his mouth as his eyes fixated on his watch. It was a race against time, now. The bus driver was never late.

Mrs. Chagny sighed, leaning against the door. "Why do you tease your brother like that, Georgine?" She asked, exasperatedly. If Raoul hadn't been so late already, World War Seven would have started. They'd already gone through World Wars Three through Six.

"Because I can." She said obsequiously. "And besides, I know he never will." She answered with a grin. "He's way too shy."

Mrs. Chagny just sighed and massaged her head. Another day… Another _long_ day…


	2. MORNING cot'd

AUTHOR'S NOTE: …A friend of mine pointed out to me that Raoul has an OLDER brother, not a younger one… -.-;; please alert me to these inconsistencies, I'm not that good on my knowledge of the books. So henceforth, Raoul only has a headachey little sister in elementary school; his brother's in college.

My first chapter was short, I'm sorry. And please forgive these first few; hopefully they'll get longer and better as I go on. So here you go, Chapter Two.

...oh. And I thought I'd updated this already... ooops! Sorry about that!  
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MORNING –CONTINUED-

Raoul ran down the street to his bus stop, though not recklessly; he'd die if his just-right hair got out of place on the first day. The good part about all this was that there wasn't anyone to impress at his bus stop: just himself, the noisy and annoying Carlotta, the weird Mask kid, and Derek. Oh wait; Derek graduated. So just him and anti-social and little miss annoying. Great. Now there'd be _no one_ to shut her up. If Raoul so much as tried, she'd have a hissy fit and make everyone hate him. Derek never really cared; people liked him because he didn't care, and was the only one who would stop things like Carlotta's rants. Or singing. Dear God, the singing! He'd almost forgotten it!

Every morning, Carlotta HAD to sing a 'beautiful morning song', as she called it, loudly and out of tune. Well, she did until Mr. Anti-social showed up, which was always about one half of a second before the bus left. It all had to do with this one time he threatened to kill her. Rather a gruesome threat; it scared both Raoul and Derek, but she never sang around him again. How the freaky Mask kid knew exactly what time to arrive just made him more scary. He had no friends. Literally. He ate lunch alone, studied alone, never raised his hand in class; the most he did was write long letters to the teachers and speak to them. His 'mother', or rather, the lady who took care of them, was the school's choreographer, and even when the teachers asked what to do about Erik, or so he was called, her advice was to "just leave him be. He's had a hard childhood. It's not like his grades are suffering." The teachers had to agree, but everyone felt something was a little…_off,_ with Erik. No one could really explain it, but he just sent out bad vibes.

So it was a shock to Raoul when he saw not one, but two girls waiting for him at the bus stop. Okay, maybe not for him specifically, but what did it matter? They were there, waiting, and he was walking to where they were. They were waiting for him.

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Christine had had just about as much as she could take. This girl, Carlotta as she'd introduced herself, had absolutely insisted on singing "Beautiful Day", regardless of the fact that she had neither the range nor the tone right for it. Not to even mention the fact that she couldn't possibly have any idea of even what 'harmony' was, with those frequent and god-awful sharps interjected. It was torturous. Christine would plug her ears if it weren't entirely rude.

Luckily, Carlotta's eyes caught on Raoul, and she ceased her rendition. Christine visibly relaxed her posture.

"Oh! Raoul! What a beautiful morning this is! Why, I was just singing a song about the day, to our new neighbor, Christine Daae. She's such a nice little girl." Carlotta said in what might be conceived as a belittling tone; almost like Christine was an oddity, something to be pitied, or the like.

Christine didn't think she liked that tone too much, but more than anything, she was focused on the boy now approaching them. Carlotta had said his name was Raoul; it couldn't possibly be the Raoul that had been her neighbor so many years ago?! And yet, this boy looked exactly like him!

"Christine…Daae? It cannot be… Christine? Do you remember me?" Raoul was shocked. What a turn of events this would be, if it really were the Christine from so many years ago! He doubted it could be any other; Daae was not such a common name, and those same chestnut curls confirmed his beliefs.

"Raoul! Why…what are you doing here? What a surprise!" Christine said, smiling.

"Oh? You two know each other?"

"Yes, Carlotta." Raoul replied. "We used to play together, when we lived next to each other. Do you remember?"

"I remember hot summer afternoons, how your mother would bring us lemonade and cookies."

"And cold, snowy winters, we'd go inside your house for soup and hot cocoa. But what a pleasant surprise this is! What brings you here!"

"…Oh, well…" Christine's face fell, remembering the recent turn of events that had brought her here. "…Father is…you see…"

"Oh, is he well? I'd love to meet him again! He was always so nice."

"…He died."

The tension in the air was almost visible as every one of the three students fell silent.

"…When?" Raoul asked simply.

"…A few years ago."

"…I'm sorry, Christine…" Raoul reached out to her, ready to comfort her, but a figure abruptly interrupted him.

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Erik had been watching their actions for a while. He liked to avoid people as much as possible, and so made a spot for himself behind the bushes at the bus stop where he'd camp out and read a book until the bus arrived. This day, the presence of another had sparked his attention. It was another girl. He didn't know her; she must be new. He could even ignore Carlotta's horrendous singing, paying attention only to this "Christine", as she introduced herself.

She seemed interesting. She was certainly beautiful. However, it didn't seem like very long until that self-centered, thick-skulled…..well, until _Raoul_ walked in, and they started talking. Erik clenched his jaw. He didn't deserve someone as beautiful as Christine. Erik raised himself onto his ankles with a glare, ready to reveal his hiding-spot, when the bus came. It was a perfect excuse to jump out from behind his bush.

Erik's knees cracked as he vaulted up. He'd spent too much time on his knees, he knew this, but there was really no helping it. He didn't want to deal with people this early in the morning.

Erik sniffed, and brushed by Christine, bumping Raoul along the way. They were too close, anyhow.

"Hey! Watch it, Erik!"

Erik leered at the floor of the bus directly in front of him, and whisked his way to his back seat. No one sat there anymore. For the first few times, they had to be viciously poked with too-sharp pencils to learn that was his seat, but Erik always got his way. Always.

Raoul sighed. "I'm sorry about that, Christine. You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No…" She said, looking after the mysterious boy. "…Who was that?"

"Good." Raoul said, then his demeanour turned sour. "That was Erik. The local weirdo. Don't bother with him; he hates people, and he's a dangerous type. You'd be better off to stay away from him."

Christine nodded. She looked curiously after Erik. "Come on," Raoul said, taking her hand. "We'll be late. The bus driver won't wait forever."

Christine smiled and turned her head towards her childhood friend, following him onto the bus. It looked like maybe this year wouldn't be as bad as she'd thought.


End file.
